Artifacts and Talismans
The talismans are named for the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. They each hold an aspect of Shendu's power. History Long ago, Shendu's subjects rose up against him, led by Lo Pei, Using an extraction spell, he trapped Shendu in statue form, releasing his powers in the form of twelve Talismans. Lo Pei scattered them across the globe to make sure Shendu would never again rise to power. It would be nine centuries before Shendu made a deal with the Dark Hand in exchange for treasure. However, they only got him two talismans while their nemesis, Jackie Chan, had ten. By tricking Jackie's Yang side (affected by the Tiger talisman's magic), Shendu gained the other talismans and returned to power. Near Hong Kong, at Shendu's palace, Jackie used a potion dabbed on his hands to extract the Rat Talisman and turn Shendu back into a statue, which Jade destroyed with the Dragon talisman. However, the talismans ended up in the possession of the Dark Hand, who tried to using them for crime until Shendu came back as a spirit. He enlisted their service, as the talismans were of no use to him in his form. The J-Team was able to recover the Talismans and had them locked in Section 13 , from which they would make cameo appearances in all of the later seasons as characters (usually Jade) used them for various tasks. After Shendu's spirit was sent back to the Demon Netherworld, the Dark Hand sought to steal the talismans, only for them to be destroyed by a laser cannon in a three-way fight between the Enforcers, Daolon Wong and the Chans. The powers of the Talismans then spread across the world to find the original animals of the zodiac to house their powers as their orignial owner Shendu was dead. As those animals were long since dead, the magic targeted "noblest" animal of the same species. The Chans were able to get nine of the power animals; the Pig and the Rooster were captured by Daolon Wong, and there was no dragon left on Earth. They tried to place the talisman powers within replicas Tohru carved, but the replicas would not hold the energy. Meanwhile, Wong resurrected Shendu to gain the Dragon's magic, only for Shendu to betray him and slowly regain all his powers. Luckily, Uncle, Tohru and the Section 13 agents produced another extraction spell, trapping Shendu in statue form again and reforging the talismans. During the battle against Drago in the final episode, Jade had everyone throw their talismans to Shendu so he would stand a better chance in the fight against his son. Using a reversal spell, Uncle and Tohru banished Drago and all demons from the Earth, and the talismans are never seen again. Before Tohru landed on it, Shendu at one time had an item that could locate the Talismans. The item was a handle with four dragon-like heads. The eyes would glow in from the dragon pointing towards the Talisman. Twelve Talismans On the front of each talisman is an animal of the Chinese zodiac, while on the back are inscriptions that describe their powers. Rooster Power of Levitation/Telekinesis. Found embedded in a shield in an unnamed Bavarian castle. This was the first Talisman found. Combined with Rabbit it creates flight. *First used by Jade (when she accidentally swallowed it in her soup) to stop from falling off the Golden Gate Bridge and return to solid ground on the bridge. Ox Power of Super Strength. Found in an ancient Mexican temple by El Toro Fuerte. Later found by Jackie on the mask of El Toro Fuerte. The Ox is most commonly used by Jackie when he needs to fight larger enemies. *First used by El Toro Fuerte as his symbol on his mask. Snake Power of Invisibility. Found in a secret passage in a cave, near the Amazon River. Later, it was stolen by Viper from a museum, and Jackie recovered it from her. Is most commonly used by Viper. *Was first used by Viper. Sheep Power of Astral Projection, or the ability to eject the soul from the body and wander as a spirit. In this form, one is invisible, inaudible, and able to fly, pass through walls, and enter a person's dreams (where one can be seen and heard). It was first found in a crate. (In Jackie Chan's first fight against Shendu, when he drew his first talisman and used it, he commented it as the most useless one.) * First used by Jade. The Sheep is the least commonly used Talisman. * its also shown one can use the talisman to eject the souls of other people other than the holder as Daolin demonstrates. Rabbit Power of Super Speed. Was found stuck in the shell of a tortoise in the Pacific. When used with the Rooster, it allows flight. Can also be used to increase speed of objects like a space shuttle (Shanghi Moon). The Rabbit is most commonly used by Jade and Tohru. *Was first used by Tohru. Dragon Power of Fire(Pyrokinesis). Allows holder to shoot beams of explosive flaming energy to be discharged from the talisman. It was found in a volcanic cave, and Valmont fused it to his hand. However, soon afterward, Shendu's Shadowkhan returned the talisman to Shendu. *Was first used by Valmont. *made several cameo appearances in season 5. Rat Power of Animation; "motion to the motionless". Gives inanimate objects life. When Shendu was under the spell of Lo Pei, this talisman was required to maintain his form if the Talismans were used to free him from statue form. Found in an ancient Chinese lantern. The Rat is most commonly used by Jade to bring her "Super Moose" doll to life. *Was first used by Jade to bring her action figure to life. *Was never used to bring a dead person back to life, not counting the statue of Lo Pei. Horse Power of Healing. Its magic is that, "if activated, the Noble Horse expels all alien forces within," curing the user of foreign bodies (i.e. germs, viruses, etc). It can also heal physical injuries, repair broken objects and instantly relieve physical pain and disorientation (such as sea sickness) It was so effective that it even healed a hole the size of a cow in Shendu's chest in a few seconds. Found in an unknown mountain lodge. *First used by Tohru accidentally to cure his cold. *Can work on any inanimate object as well as living things. Dog Power of Immortality; "The Dog Talisman is best friend to Man, it restores youthful energy and grants Eternal Life." It can negate the "effects" of aging (the user won't turn young again, but they will feel like they have and will stop aging), and make them invulnerable (to an unknown degree Shendu, when battling Jackie, got severely injured by the Dragon Talisman despite being immortal) but not unfeeling to pain. (This was humorously pointed out in one episode when Finn collided with a bridge while atop a moving train, then groaned weakly, "Immortality hurts!"). However, the talisman's power lasts only as long as the user is in contact/wearing the talisman. Found in a wall of a windmill in Bavaria. *Was first used by Uncle to battle Tohru and Hak Foo. Pig Power of Laser/"Heat-Beam Eye Blasts"/Optic Blasts. The user is given the power to shoot powerful beams of energy from their eyes. It can also be used to see everything as heat. It can be seen as a reverse to the snake talisman. Found on a Bavarian clock tower mechanical pig with cymbals. *It was first seen to be used by Hak Foo. Its previous owner, a chocolate maker named Ferkel, used it for melting cocoa beans to make his chocolate. Monkey Power of Shapeshifting. Any item/person/animal may be changed into the shape of any animal by saying the name of the intended animal's shape. It is unknown if it can do extinct animals, i. e. a T-rex. The talisman then projects a beam or vapor that transforms whatever it hits. (Saying/thinking a variant of "change back" undoes the spell.) Found in Micronesia, underwater. The Monkey is most commonly used by Tohru to turn enemies into kittens (which Uncle once scolded him about, since Uncle was allergic to kittens). *It should be noted that the first time the Monkey talisman was used on an inanimate object, it turned into a living animal. (Jade called for a hollow log to become "a death ray," but it turned into a manta ray instead.) It’s possible that the talisman can turn nonliving objects into living animals but only if it’s in close contact with the object. The beam can only turn inanimate objects (e.g. a boulder or bush) into sculpture-like shapes. Tiger Power of Balance. When halved, it also splits the user's positive and negative halves (Yin and Yang) into two separate beings, each holding a half of the talisman. Can also be used to find the "other half" of a broken object. The two beings rejoin when they reunite the broken talisman. Was found within a pie. As said by Shendu, the Tiger is meant to balance the other 11 Talismans. This tells that it wasn't supposed to be broken, meaning that the action of splitting someone in two was never its true ability, but merely a consequence of it being broken in half. On the other hand, the Noble Tiger had the same ability, and the new Talisman made by Tohru had the same crack, so it is possible that the crack on the talisman was intentional, and the separation ability is its real ability *First used accidently by Jackie. The Talisman Powers In season 3 both Daolon Wong and the Dark Hand manage to break into Section 13 and attempt to steal the Talismans. However, Jackie fires a powerful laser cannon at the bag of Talismans, intending to destroy them forever and put an end to Daolon Wong's plan. However, he learned the hard way that although the Talismans are destroyed, their magical powers are not, and the powers were scattered to the winds to possess the noble descendants of the original animals of the zodiac as their original containers were destroyed they have to seek a substitute. So instead of ending the Talisman quest for good, Jackie started it all over again (much to his chagrin). The Noble Animals When the Chans located any of the animals, they transported them to Section 13 to be kept under magical and technological protection. The search for the animals was hampered by the appearances of Daolon Wong, who would simply absorb the powers out from the animals and into himself, and by the fact that the animals tended to activate their own abilities when frightened or angered. (For some of the hunts, Uncle used enchanted cages that would prevent the animal within from activating its magic.) Scruffy The noble dog with the power of immortality was discovered at a dog show. But to the Chans' surprise, the dog was actually a stray and was not part of the show. Jade named the dog Scruffy and adopted it as a pet. Throughout the series, Jade thought Scruffy was a cross of several other breeds Sasha The noble tiger was called Sasha and was the star attraction in a show in Las Vegas. When Jackie tried to take the tiger, its power of Balance (or lack thereof) was activated, and it started splitting Jackie into his light and dark side. But Jade knocked Jackie out of the way before the process was complete, leaving Jackie with two heads. (He completed the separation a little later.) However, once he manages to bring the two tigers together again, he is returned to normal. Rat The noble rat with the ability to give motion to the motionless was discovered in a Mexican temple. However, the rat's power was activated, and a nearby statue of the Mexican sun god Quetzalcoatl. He was brought to life until he was persuaded to return to his statue form by touching the rat again. Haiku The noble monkey with the power of shapeshifting was named Haiku and belonged to a Japanese ambassador on vacation in Hawaii. When Jackie went to collect the monkey, the Monkey King, freed from his puppet form, followed Jackie intent on getting his revenge. In this episode, Haiku used his power only on himself, and he used it on others as well in later episodes. Eggbert Jackie found the noble rooster with the power of levitation hovering around the Patronas Towers in Malaysia. He later took it to Kansas, where it made friends with the noble pig, Mordecai. Jade named the rooster Eggbert. Mordecai Jade and Jackie found the noble pig with the power of heat beam eyes, called Mordecai, on a farm in Kansas. Mordecai made friends with the noble rooster, Eggbert, and the two joined forces and began floating around the town. Both animals were cornered by Daolon Wong, who absorbed both powers before retreating. Snake The Chans found the noble snake with the power of invisibility in an Indian bazaar. The snake was in a egg, which Tohru's mother dipped into her tea to relieve her headache, causing her to turn invisible. After the hatched cobra was collected by the Chans, Uncle concocted a spell to make Tohru's mother visible again. Bob The noble sheep with the power of astral projection, who called himself Baab, was located in the Scottish highlands, near Loch Ness. Daolon Wong managed to absorb the power and used it to release Jade and Jackie's souls from their bodies. He then put a spell on their bodies so that their astral forms could not return. Uncle managed to perform a spell to return Jade and Jackie, but the spell went wrong and Jade ended up in Jackie's body and vice versa. They later located Daolon Wong's physical form (as his astral self was elsewhere) and released the Sheep magic from him, restoring Jade and Jackie and sealing Wong's body for good measure. (He managed to return to his body after the episode ended.) Lucky The noble rabbit was a mascot named Lucky for a high school football team called the Jackalopes. Lucky was used by a relatively-scrawny football player named Chip to run several key plays and help win the game. Royal Medicine The noble horse with the power of healing was located in London, at the Campton Racecourse. Its name was Royal Medicine. Valmont believed that the horse's ability would return him to his normal size after Daolon Wong turned him into a child, but it merely healed his paper cut (much to his shock and anger). Ox The noble ox with the power of super strength was in the Himalayan Mountains. Uncle managed to release the power from the ox and place it in his own body temporarily, to protect it from Daolon Wong. He soon later returned the power to the ox. Shendu As dragons were extinct, the Dragon power could not go to a host, which temporarily stopped the hunt for the talisman powers at eleven animals. However, Daolon Wong made a deal with the spirit of Shendu, agreeing to conjure a new body for the dragon in exchange for receiving the power of combustion when it came to possess Shendu. Immediately after his rebirth, Shendu betrayed Daolon Wong, took the Dragon power for himself, and absorbed the powers of the Rooster and Pig from Daolon Wong as well. He then went on to hunt down the other nine animals, and he claimed all their powers, but Uncle performed Lo Pei's spell and returned Shendu to statue form, sealing the powers into stone talismans again!!! Trivia *Talismans with similar effects can have additional abilities. *For example, in some instances the dog talisman can render the horse talisman redundant, as the dog makes the user immortal whereas the horse can only accelerate the healing process, but the horse can also be used to repair objects, cure illnesses and relieve pain, which the dog cannot. *Also the pig talisman is offensively less powerful than the dragon talisman, but can be used with greater accuracy and also grant heat vision. *Jade once commented that the dragon, dog, rabbit, rooster, snake and ox are "the good ones". Category:Magical Objects